“In-between seasons” make it difficult to figure out what to wear. A capsule wardrobe can help.
For many people, finding a suitable outfit involves searching two closets or digging through bins of off-season clothing.
Feeling overwhelmed by clutter?
Learn 5 Habits of Clutter-Free Families
Perhaps you are experiencing this right now?
I do not have this issue. My wardrobe lives in one closet. But that wasn’t always the case. For most of my adult life, I spent two weekends a year swapping seasonal clothes into my main closet. As a part of my minimalist journey, I eliminated the swap and reclaimed precious time and space. Now, all my clothing lives in just one closet. Yes, even coats.
Experiment with Less
Along the way, I experimented with less clothing. I challenged myself to wear just 7 pieces of clothing for an entire week; (inspired by Jen Hatmaker’s book 7) I still left the house for work, church, and social engagements and was always in clean clothes. 🙂
Next, I tackled my closet to develop a capsule wardrobe of 33 seasonal pieces. Having followed Courtney Carver’s Project 333, I was inspired to downsize even more.
Less Clothing, Less Laundry
When I talk about the benefits of a small wardrobe, the primary argument against it is “I’ll have to do more laundry.” Wrong.
Less clothing yields less laundry. I know because I live it. Laundry can be done weekly, start to finish, in one day. Without exception, my pile of laundry is the smallest in our family. It’s no coincidence I own the least amount of clothing.
Admittedly, I work 75% from home. My wardrobe is simpler and doesn’t require business attire every day. That said, I get ready each day and also exercise several times a week which still fills the laundry basket. And yet, I find my laundry the easiest to wash, dry, fold, and re-hang.
Re-Hang, Re-Fold, and Re-Wear
Even during my corporate days, I rotated 3-4 suits and changed the look with different tops and accessories. The suits were dry cleaned and had little impact on the volume of laundry.
Re-wearing helped. For example, I re-wore my church outfit to the office on Monday. Re-wearing is recommended because washing clothes too often can do more harm than good and shorten their lifespan.
“Many of us believe that all of our clothes only have one-wear potential. We can wear each piece just once before we have to toss in the dirty clothes hamper and then into the washer before we can wear it again. What a lot of people don’t realize, though, is that we all have many articles of clothing that don’t need to be washed after every wear.” You’re Washing Your Clothes Too Often by Megan Branch
Rest assured, I’m NOT advocating wearing dirty clothes, but I am suggesting that we might be doing more laundry than necessary. Here’s a guide for how often to launder items. Your favorite shirt will wear out with over-washing.
Staging Area
The real difference came from the margin in my closet. The empty space allows me to easily re-hang items or re-fold and save for later. Some pieces are worn a second or third time before laundering. My favorite hangers create a cohesive look inside the closet too!
Most closets are packed to the gills. Instead of filling every free space, I establish a staging area. It’s the shelf below the short-hang items.
Are you currently rummaging through baskets of clean laundry? Is putting away laundry the worst chore? This is likely because your closet is simply too full. Why not try a capsule wardrobe for a month? Once you’ve downsized, treat yourself to a set of these hangers to finish the closet organization.
Get Started:
- Count your clothing (Yes, all of it.)
- Commit to reducing by X%
- Select your 5 favorite outfits to wear next week. Select 3-5 more.
- Stop when items are not your absolute favorite. I.e. Would you wear it tomorrow or pack it for a trip?
- Set aside your favorite items.
- Empty the entire closet.
- Re-hang your favorites for the current season.
- Continue sorting and downsizing the rest.
- Respect your closet as a boundary. Leave margin.
- Keep colors you like. Eliminate the rest.
- Streamline your accessories to match (Jewelry, shoes, and belts)
- Throw away torn or stained clothing.
- Donate items that are not your current size or current style.
- Box up the off-season items. Repeat in 3 months.
- Commit to a shopping moratorium for 3 months.
I’d love to hear the results of your experiment with a capsule wardrobe.
I have been working on paring down my wardrobe during the pandemic. Although I don’t know if it’s a true exercise because I haven’t wearing much business attire. I find that a simple wardrobe is much easier. Less colors to coordinate and just less options to make decisions.
Yes – fewer colors is the key. I have my favorites for sure and feel better dressed in them.
I’m curious what to do with clothes you don’t currently need but may in the future? I’m currently a stay-at-home mom, but I was previously a teacher. I plan to go back to teaching eventually, and I don’t want to get rid of all my work clothes and then have to rebuy… (generally, I stay the same size), but I’m not sure what to keep/discard at this point. Just box them for now?
Hey Jen – great question. I think boxing up some items makes sense but before you do that with everything, I would just keep your favorites. And I would keep things that are timeless. If your return to teaching is more than 5 years away, the styles will likely change. So, I would consider the items you keep carefully and set a boundary for yourself like 1 box. I’ve often thought about what I would do if I returned to a corporate office and I don’t think I would buy much. Offices are much more casual than in the past and with a capsule wardrobe, I am more creative about how I mix and match. The capsule gets you into a different mindset. I’d be happy to chat more with you if you’re trying to get started. Just drop me an email amy@simplyenough.net. I’d be happy to help!